Taxpayers underwrite private business deals

If your neighbor told you he was going to plant a rose garden, would you give him $100 to encourage him to plant a rose garden?

Of course not. You'd be a fool to pay him to do something he was already doing.

Yet that is precisely what Florida does — with your money.

It's called the incentives game. And though politicians used to give incentives to spark new business, they've gotten so cavalier about giving away your cash, they now hand it out for no good reason.

As the Sentinel's Jason Garcia reported Sunday, the Legislature approved millions in new tax breaks — all to companies that already had expansions planned.

In the most ludicrous example, Florida awarded the CSX rail company a $400 million contract — all of it public money — which CSX can now use to qualify for a break on its corporate taxes.

Obviously CSX didn't need an incentive to take the public's $400 million. The deal was already sealed. But darned if the Legislature didn't offer it a break anyway.

Another potential beneficiary is Publix, which was already planning to build and remodel stores as part of its normal course of business. Now the grocery chain can get tax breaks for doing so.

This is nonsensical. Publix wasn't expanding for charity's sake. It was expanding to make money.

And bully for them. I'm happy to help Publix make money when I buy my veggies and deli meat. But I have a butcher-sized beef with subsidizing their profits through corporate welfare … especially for routine business.

All of this is common sense and basic economics. Yet anyone who questions corporate handouts is branded "anti-business."

You just don't understand private-sector economics, say legislators — some of whom have run their own businesses into the ground and depend upon the public trough for everything from income to health insurance.

The pols are the ones peddling economic hogwash. You show me a CEO who claims she won't embark upon a half-billion-dollar project unless she gets a $1 million tax break, and I'll show you a liar.

Massive endeavors aren't planned with margins that thin. Not even the businesses argue that. But they don't have to. The politicians trip over themselves to give away the money.

They also trip over themselves to take it. As Garcia reported, the five companies that could benefit donated more than $8 million to candidates and political committees in 2010.

That brings us to another basic principle: You don't make an investment unless you expect it to pay off. And in Florida, political donations pay off in spades.

In recent years, the Legislature and governor have given tens of millions of dollars in corporate tax breaks.

These are not breaks for you.

And most aren't for small businesses. To get this break, for instance, a company has to spend $250 million during two years to qualify.

Pete's Plumbing and Carla's Car Repair could never hope to qualify.

And every time corporate taxes drop as a percentage of the state budget, the individual's burden goes up — whether it's through sales taxes or jacked-up drivers-license fees.

I asked a few of these legislators to explain why taxpayers should help pay for business expansions that were already planned. Most, including House Speaker Dean Cannon and House tax-committee Chairman Steve Precourt, didn't respond.

But a couple, including incoming Senate President Don Gaetz and future President Andy Gardiner, have agreed to take a second look at these breaks.

They should. Because right now, Florida has the best tax breaks campaign donations can buy.